Veteran lawman takes the helm at Troop C

Wednesday

GRAY – In his 18 years with the State Police, Darrin Naquin had the chance to pursue a variety of postings that would have taken him away from the hub of south Louisiana communities Troop C patrols.

But Naquin, a newly minted captain who was selected to take the helm of Troop C last week, never particularly cared to work outside the troop’s familiar parishes – Assumption, Lafourche, Terrebonne and small portions of St. James and St. John the Baptist.

“It’s just the people – I was born and raised in this area,” Naquin said, seated behind a broad desk in the office recently vacated by Val Penouilh, the former Troop C commanding officer who was promoted to major last month and placed in charge of four State Police troops. “I just never wanted to leave.”

Naquin, 38, grew up in Plattenville – “Mustang country,” he says – and graduated from Assumption High. He began his career as a cop in 1987 with the Nicholls State University Police before joining the Lafourche Sheriff’s Office a year later.

He graduated from the State Police training academy in 1990 and, after shuffling through three law-enforcement agencies in as many years, settled at Troop C for the next 18 years.

Naquin worked road patrol and served as the troop’s public-information officer before he was promoted to sergeant in 1998.

Over the course of the next six years, Naquin supervised the Troop C criminal-patrols unit, the hit-and-run-fatality section and the crash-response team, in addition to assisting with the TrafficStat program, which compiles traffic and crash data to help troopers identify trouble spots.

In December 2004, he was promoted to lieutenant and named Troop C’s executive officer, or second in command, later that month.

A former State Police SWAT team member, Naquin holds an associate’s degree from Nicholls and a bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University.

He is a certified Peace Officer Standards and Training instructor -- a set of basic-training courses for municipal officers, deputy sheriffs, state police, wildlife agents, among others – and has taught accident investigation at the State Police academy for 11 years.

Though he has also undergone a variety of other specialized training, the biggest notch on his belt is the successful completion of the 10-week FBI National Academy for state and local law-enforcement officers in Quantico, Va.

“It really gave you a chance to learn about law enforcement and law-enforcement management and leadership,” Naquin said, adding that the program also gave him a new network of officers from dozens of states and foreign countries.

Though his predecessors, including Penouilh and Lt. Col Ralph Mitchell – a high-ranking State Police officer who heads the agency’s Crisis Response-Special Operations Division – have moved into the upper echelons of the organization, Naquin didn’t consider his new job at Troop C a fast track to the top.

He calls Penouilh and Mitchell “very effective” leaders who left a solid organizational structure but credits the troopers, communications officers and other staffers with doing the day-to-day work that makes Troop C an efficient, respected branch of the State Police.

“It does say a lot about the people at Troop C,” Naquin said. “They have given Troop C a very good reputation throughout the State Police and throughout the community.”

Naquin takes over about seven months after a group of six academy graduates brought Troop C’s manpower to 54 commissioned troopers.

Though the troop consistently records one of the highest seat-belt-use statistics in the state, getting local drivers to buckle up and combating what a former state official called an “epidemic” of drinking and driving on south Louisiana’s roads are the major issues facing troopers.

“We still have a lot of problems out there on our highways with people driving drunk and people driving aggressively,” Naquin said.

Technology, like computers in patrol cars that allow troopers to instantly check drivers’ licenses, free up the troopers to make more stops.

And the TrafficStat system provides a means to pinpoint areas that show high incidences of dangerous traffic violations, DWI stops and other unsafe road behavior.

More manpower allows DWI checkpoints and “saturation patrols” to be conducted with greater frequency.

But the biggest factor in reducing fatalities on local roads, especially those that result from alcohol-related crashes, is the role troopers play in going into local schools and educating students, Naquin said.

Since the early 1980s, such programs, like the mock crash Troop C helped put on in March, have helped curb drunken driving, especially among teens, Naquin said.

“I don’t think it’s near as big a problem as it was back then,” Naquin said. “We need to continue doing things like that .”

Staff Writer Robert Zullo can be reached at 985-850-1150 or robert.zullo@houmatoday.com.

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